1. Race And Genes
This topic is inexorably intertwined with the topic of racism, so let me first address how I think about racism.
Racism originates from at least three different human impulses:
a) Fear
b) Resentment
c) Narcissism
Only the last kind is evil.
This topic is inexorably intertwined with the topic of racism, so let me first address how I think about racism.
Racism originates from at least three different human impulses:
a) Fear
b) Resentment
c) Narcissism
Only the last kind is evil.
2. Racism rooted in fear is similar to fear of the unknown. Education, frequent interaction, and experience will naturally overcome it.
3. Racism rooted in resentment is bad only when the resentment is directed at individuals who have done you no harm. This is a kind of reverse-racism.
Resenting people because of the sins of their ancestors is ultimately no good for one's own well-being and should be avoided.
Resenting people because of the sins of their ancestors is ultimately no good for one's own well-being and should be avoided.
4. Racism rooted in narcissism, i.e. holding one race or ethnicity superior to others, is pure evil, and should be fought against with all one's might.
5. Despite the enormous public rancor on anything having to do with race, people of good will and reasonable intellect will readily agree that genetic differences between people of different geographic origins are an incontrovertible reality. That is not an issue.
6. The issue is entirely about "so what?" Saying there are genetic differences between people of different origins is saying nothing more than there are skin color differences between people of different origins -- an observable reality requiring no scientific background.
7. As with skin color, so with myriads of details of physiology -- internal and external -- and disease proclivities that science is uncovering all the time. Trying to ignore those differences will be as detrimental to humanity as making too much of them that is not warranted.
8. So long as we agree on one fundamental point, no amount of discussion about genetic differences should be the least bit controversial or offensive to anyone whatsoever. And that point is this ...
9. Genes only control and determine physical, chemical, and electromechanical characteristics of our bodies, but have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on our intellect, character, or morality, and hence on our human worth. Period.
10. In other words, differences in our genetic code make us physically different, but they do not make any group of people inherently superior or inferior to any other group. Anyone who believes otherwise is a racist.
11. Some people use science to advance their preconceived sinister notions about race. No matter what their credentials and facility with rhetorical sophistication, they are racists at their core, and they are the ones who make a civilized dialogue about race all but impossible.
12. I would even go so far as to say one of the fundamental differences between human beings and animals is that humans transcend genetics. You do not transcend genetics by denying it. You transcend it by recognizing it for what it is -- arrangement of atoms and molecules.
13. And yet, to my great dismay, high IQ is no guarantee against extremely heinous notions about race and genetics. Nor is even an extremely deep scientific understanding of genetics. Even the brightest of the bright can still carry the most pernicious notions in their heads.
14. Exhibit A is James Watson of the "Watson and Crick" fame, the man who co-discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, and shared a Nobel Prize for it in 1962.
If you ever wonder why people at large don't defer to scientists and academics on moral leadership, this is why.
If you ever wonder why people at large don't defer to scientists and academics on moral leadership, this is why.
15. Science has done wonders for humanity over the last few centuries. But science itself needs to be guided by a higher moral code.
Science can teach us how to kill and how to heal, but it can never teach us when to kill and when to heal.
The END
Science can teach us how to kill and how to heal, but it can never teach us when to kill and when to heal.
The END
Regarding the use of the term "intellect" in Point#9 above, many people have mentioned that there is a heritable portion of IQ, so let me clarify my usage of the term. 1/2
Intellect refers to something much higher than IQ, including notions of judgment, wisdom, insight, and in some Eastern philosophies something even higher than that which can only be intuited as a window into metaphysical dimensions. I used the term in that higher sense. 2/2
